Louisiana Board of Regents

What is the Board of Regents Support Fund (BoRSF)?

The BoRSF, funded through the interest earnings from a $583 million Trust Fund dedicated in the Louisiana State Constitution to the Board of Regents, is designed to foster excellence in education, research and service, as well as promote economic development through collaborations between academic programs and industrial, business and professional entities. The Louisiana Constitution mandates that funds allocated to the BoRSF be used for “any or all of the following higher educational purposes to enhance economic development:

• carefully defined research efforts at public and private universities in Louisiana
• endowment of chairs for eminent scholars
• enhancement of the quality of academic, research, or agricultural departments or units within a university
• recruitment of superior graduate students”

Accordingly, the BoRSF currently operates several subprograms available through four primary program areas: Research and Development, Endowed Chairs, Enhancement, and Graduate Fellows. Awards in all categories are based on the following considerations:

• the potential for the award to enhance the overall quality of higher education in Louisiana
• the potential for the award to enhance the economic development of the State

Goals

The most recent Strategic Plan governing the BoRSF has identified several goals and objectives for the Fund:

• Develop and maintain international excellence and a competitive position in basic and applied research;
• Increase numbers of research faculty who are competitive on a national basis;
• Increase the number of graduates at all levels who possess scientific and cultural literacy and relevant workforce skills;
• Target funding to disciplines in a manner which enhances research infrastructure and the quality of education while promoting economic development and diversification;
• Foster closer ties between university researchers and business and industry in order to selectively nurture the technology transfer of academic research;
• Promote and enhance close collaboration and resource sharing among the State’s universities, especially between the majority white and historically black institutions;
• Enhance collaborative efforts among universities, K-12 teachers, schools, and districts, to involve higher education more effectively in Louisiana’s K-12 reform efforts;
• Increase at all levels the number and quality of minority students in STEM disciplines;
• Provide matching funds for federal and private grants that meet the primary goals and objectives of the BoRSF; and
• Systematically and comprehensively evaluate goals and strategies to determine effectiveness.

Strategies

The BoRSF works to achieve its goals through:
Continual consideration and revision, if necessary, of constitutionally mandated BoRSF programs and subprograms
Development of new programs and subprograms to meet the evolving needs of higher education and research in the State
Regular, detailed evaluation of projects and programs

Some Highlights

As of 2008, results from the investment of BoRSF money in higher education include:

$705,414,079 generated in new external funding from federal, private, and other non-BoRSF sources
2656 external awards from federal, private, and other non-BoRSF sources
247 $1 million and 30 $2 million chairs for eminent scholars endowed at 24 universities
1,935 $100,000 endowed professorships endowed at 34 campuses
$1:$1.67 rate of return for all projects funded since 1987
158 patents issued; 81 patent applications pending
8,812 refereed publications
Expanded university collaboration to increase research competitiveness for federal R&D money